What's Next: Replacing Deion Colzie Will Be A Challenge For Notre Dame
Notre Dame lost long-time wide receiver commit Deion Colzie when the talented junior announced his plans to reopen his recruitment. That was a huge blow to the Notre Dame recruiting class, which has come to a screeching halt in recent months.
Colzie committed to the Fighting Irish staff back in October, calling Notre Dame his dream school, but he has since altered course.
With Colzie out of the class the once vaunted wide receiver class could be in trouble. Notre Dame still has Pickerington (Ohio) Central athlete Lorenzo Styles Jr., who I graded out higher than Styles, but there’s a chance that Styles could end up at cornerback due to struggles at that position.
Notre Dame can get away with just two wide receivers in this class, but if two is the number they must be impact players. If the Irish take low-floor/high-ceiling players they’ll need three.
Notre Dame will have to rebound and finally get back some momentum to its recent drought on the recruiting trail. The Irish staff hasn’t landed a single offensive commitment since Colzie and Styles committed in October.
The Irish must refocus their efforts at wide receiver. Here are the next steps:
CONTINUE RECRUITING COLZIE
Colzie told Irish Breakdown recruiting analyst Brian Smith that he is still open to Notre Dame, but let’s be honest, when young men decommit like this they rarely go back to the original school. This is especially true when the original school is far from home.
I realize this happened recently with Braden Lenzy, but that was a completely different circumstance, and Lenzy is the outlier from what we’ve seen the last decade.
Colzie is an outstanding young man by all accounts, he values education and he comes from a strong family, so he’s a Notre Dame fit in a lot of ways, and that makes him worth staying on.
DONT’E THORNTON BECOMES EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Baltimore (Md.) Mount St. Joseph four-star wide receiver Dont’e Thornton was always a top priority, but landing him becomes even more important now that Colzie is no longer in the class.
Thornton grades out higher on my board and according to Rivals, and he’s just one spot lower than Colzie on the 247Sports composite rankings (No. 47 nationally).
I will have a film breakdown of Thornton coming out very soon, but he’s a young wideout that combines outstanding size, athleticism, ball skills and swagger.
Landing Thornton would certainly ease the loss of Colzie, but it doesn’t erase it because the original plan was to have both Colzie and Thornton in the class, which likely isn’t going to happen now. But if Notre Dame misses out on Thornton, who was once committed to Penn State, it will be incredibly difficult to land a wide receiver haul that meets the standard of an elite program.
OTHER TARGETS MOVE UP THE BOARD
Colzie brought much-needed size to the wide receiver depth chart, which lacks that in the two youngest classes currently on the roster. Finding another wideout with good size makes a lot of sense.
Notre Dame made the top 11 list for Atlanta (Ga.) Pace four-star receiver Jayden Thomas, but the Irish have some ground to make up in his recruitment. Thomas is a consensus Top 250 recruit and is ranked 182nd in the composite rankings.
Thomas has a similar skillset to Colzie, so pushing even harder for him now would make a lot of sense. Actually getting him out of the south and into the class is going to be extremely difficult.
Notre Dame has remained in the mix for East Lansing (Mich.) High School three-star Andrel Anthony, who was a standout at this summer’s Irish Invasion. Anthony is a talented player but has a completely different skillset to Colzie, so he doesn’t exactly replace what Colzie brought to the class.
One thing I value most about Anthony is his versatility. He’s an offensive player in high school, but I really like how his athleticism and body would translate to defense.
EXPAND THE BOARD
Notre Dame will likely have to expand its board. That means getting back in on talented players the staff backed off of for whatever reason, and finding new players that have the talent and personality to fit at Notre Dame.
One player that would fit that bill is Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei standout Cristian Dixon, the No. 140 player in the country according to ESPN and No. 167 according to Rivals.
A player that I would take a long, hard look at if I was Notre Dame is Coconut Creek (Fla.) Monarch three-star receiver Jaden Alexis. Like Anthony, Alexis could easily transition to defense, but he’s an outstanding wideout at the prep level and he’s an outstanding student.
Alexis caught 49 passes for 894 yards (18.2 YPC) and eight touchdowns this past season. The Monarch standout is a consensus three-star recruit according to the national services, but I graded him as a four-star player. His film, game and skills are outstanding.
